Beneath the Godly Armor
by Mike Taurguss
Summary: A short in response to a challenge posed by Delenn, in her short Realms Away From Life. Ares returns to Olympus after learning of Xena's death. How does he react to the news? PLease R


This little tidbit is the result of a challenge posed by Delenn. It describes how Ares reacted after learning of the Death of Xena in Japa.

**Beneath the Godly Armor**

The pale white halls of mount Olympus were silent. The pillars stood as monuments to the powerful deities that used to pass through these hallowed halls. Gone where the days when the Gods would debate or, more often, argue about the affairs of the mortal world. The only sound was the wind whispering through the halls and chambers.

A subtle blue flash illuminated the end of one such hall and the God of War came strolling into existence. Stalking would have been a better description.

His eyes were dark lifeless pits and his hands were clenched fists that shook with barely restrained violence.

Only one other deity, of sorts, was present in the vacant halls. Poseidon's only surviving daughter, Neptune stood in at one of the railings on the balcony that looked down over the world of man, a calm, contemplative look in her ocean blue eyes. Her long blonde hair fluttered gently in the breeze. Since no other deity wanted to take over Poseidon's post, Neptune had been promoted, defacto, and brought to Olympus. Several other minor deities had also been "promoted" in the same way, though they all seemed not to be interested in their newfound powers. They were a conglomeration of young "brats" that chose to seclude themselves from the other remaining "old gods", and seemed content to allow man to move at his own pace, in his own way. If a god's job was to watch, these punks had that part down.

Ares scowled as he noticed her standing there. She turned and nodded to him in acknowledgement, but said nothing.

"Who says blondes are dumb," Ares thought darkly as he continued on into the main chamber. It was the one place that the youngsters never went. The one place he might find a little, what? Peace?

"That's a ridiculous thing to want," he c thought. "The God of War actually wanting peace?"

Some of his power bled out against his will, stimulating the heavens above. A deep roll of thunder boomed in the roiling clouds.

He passed into the main chamber and drew the doors shut with a slam that echoed throughout the entire temple.

Before him was the "big chair", the throne, the place where the King of the Gods once sat.

He stared at it for a long time, his emotions in a state of turmoil that even a huge war wouldn't calm.

He hadn't even realized that he was pacing, back and forth. Something fluttered on his cheek and he raised a hand to the sensation and was surprised when he found wetness on his fingers.

His mind was reeling with the realization that Xena was dead – really dead. Not another one of those near misses that she and that little brat always managed to come back from. No, this time, Xena had actually gone and done the deed, all the way.

He rounded one of the massive pillars in the chamber and stopped, his chest heaving as if his heart would burst. He didn't understand these emotions. He had never really bothered trying to before. Something began to rise within him like one of old Poseidon's waves.

His roar shook the entire room and his fist came whistling around into the massive stone piling. Richly decorated marble exploded from the impact, sending out a cloud of dust and a shower of broken stone.

He pummeled the support until it gave way and then he shattered the falling roof with blasts of fire as hot and destructive as any wild rage he had ever experienced, only this time, the effort left both the room and his heart in ruins.

By the time the last of the stone fragments settled Ares was seated on the floor, his back against the shattered wall. His arms rested on his knees and he stared blankly out into nothing.

"No," he thought to himself. "No, Xena's too smart to let something like that happen. There had to be a loophole to exploit. She never did anything without thinking it through all the way, including all the possible escapes. So what was it?"

His mind sifted through everything that had happened and he realized that he had left Gabrielle prematurely. He hadn't gotten all the information from her. He didn't have the whole picture! He had been driven to such distraction at her message that he had miscalculated – again!

A wry, self-deprecating smile touched his lips. "You were the only one that could do that to me, Xena." He said out loud to the ruined chamber. His head leaned back against the shattered wall and his hands covered his face as he let a long breath rush out of him. When he breathed back in, he smelled that familiar scent of roses.

He let his hands drop and looked up to see Aphrodite standing there, surveying the wreckage critically, her arms crossed over her chest. She looked at him with a sober expression.

"Been doing a little redecorating, I see," she said disapprovingly.

Ares looked at her darkly and waved a dismissive hand.

"It'll renew itself eventually," he replied. Already, some of the destruction was undoing itself. Small chunks of broken stone floating up and reforming like pieces of a massive puzzle.

Ares looked at the rubble-covered platform where the throne rested. He smiled grimly and waved his hand at it.

"You know something?" he said. "For the longest time, I wanted the old mans seat. I wanted to be the man!" HE sighed. "Then the old man actually buys it, the seats open, and none of us try to take it! Not even me! And you know why?"

"This should be good," Aphrodite commented as she looked at another chunk of granite lifting from the floor.

"I didn't take it," Ares said in a thick voice. "Because I didn't want it alone!"

That statement got the Goddess's attention.

"What?"

"Even when dear old dad was running the show, he always had Hera," Ares said. "Granted, she was a major pain, and she always spent more time working against dad then helping, but Zeus had someone!" Ares explained.

"You wanted the same deal as Zeus and cow face? What are you smoking, bro?" Aphrodite asked, wincing at the thought. "Did one of your little wars not pan out or something?"

Ares bounded to his feet and stalked towards the throne. His hand blasted a piece of debris that was rising to the ceiling, exploding the reconstructed stone into bits for a second time.

Aphrodite jumped in fright. IN all the eons, she had never seen her brother like this.

"Something really did happen?" she asked with uncharacteristic sincerity.

"Think about it!" Ares blurted. "Not one throne on that platform, but two! Me and her. Ares the God of War and his Queen, the Destroyer of Nations! It would have been something!"

"Oh yeah," Aphrodite muttered in disgust. "It would have been a real bash."

Then it struck her and she smiled mischievously. There was only one individual, mortal or immortal that could get him this worked up.

"Is Xena still playing hard to get?"

When Ares turned to face her, the smile melted into an expression of shock.

Ares chest was heaving with emotion and his eyes, dare she admit it, were filling with tears.

"She's dead, you bimbo!" Ares shouted. Those words nearly unleashed the emotion when he spoke them. "She took that irritating little blonde and went to Japa and got her self – " His voice caught and the sobs burst from him as he sank down onto the bottom step of the dais.

Aphrodite's mouth dropped open in disbelief, as much from the shock of the news, as the way it was affecting her brother. She didn't know what to say. Her arms dropped to her sides, as she suddenly felt numb.

She slowly stepped up to him and knelt before the distraught God.

"This isn't another one of her crazy schemes, is it?" she asked with desperate hope. "I mean, she fooled you one time for an entire generation. Are you sure she isn't doing it to you again?"

Ares shook his head. "I heard it from 'her'," he said, referring to Gabrielle. "The crazy bitch went over to Japa and got herself killed."

Aphrodite stood and walked several paces away in shock. Then she turned back to face Ares.

"We can get her back, right?" she asked. "We have to get her back!"

Ares looked up at her scornfully. "What do you think I was doing in here before you popped in?"

"Ares!" Aphrodite said in desperation. "We have to!"

"We can't!" Ares thundered as he shot to his feet. "I've been trying to figure out a way since I got in here, and I can't! It's not like it was when Kell was still around. He gets knocked off and I just absorb his followers without much trouble! That was easy! Those eastern gods? That's another story! They've got her now, and they're a weird and powerful bunch! Even if old Thunderbolt was still around, we couldn't – " His voice caught for a second time. The look in his eyes changed back to that normal cold, detached, calculating glint, but Aphrodite knew it was a front.

"Nope," Ares said with a shrug. "She's gone, and that's it. Time to start coming up with alternative plans." He began pacing about the room, counting off potential protégé's on his fingers.

"There was that one warlord in Macedonia, he's a little dense, but I could tweak him in the right direction, or that other Amazon lady in, no, never mind, wrong pantheon, I wouldn't get her."

"Ares," Aphrodite said quietly, feeling the pain flow from him like an open wound. If anyone knew the sound of a breaking heart, it was she.

"No, no," Ares said quickly, pointing at her. "This isn't anything big. It's just a setback." Already the facade was cracking along with his voice. "Just a little setback. I can fix this, no problem."

She stepped slowly over to him and placed a hand on his powerful shoulder.

"Ares?" she said with her own eyes filling with tears.

"Maybe I could get Gabrielle into the mix? I mean, hey, she's ripe for the picking now that she's lost –" His voice faded into sobs as he finally succumbed to a grief that he never knew could exist.

Aphrodite pulled him into an embrace and felt him bury his face in her shoulder. She also wept as she felt, for the first time in ages, the total despair of it all.

Ares' tortured wail echoed through the mountains reaching beyond the borders of this universe and touching all of oblivion.

In the deeper chambers of Olympus, the younger Gods cowered in fear.


End file.
